Nurse in prison timecard scandal fired

A nurse accused of claiming unearned overtime hours at a Soledad prison has been fired.

Lydia Hampton-Stewart was terminated from the Correctional Training Facility on April 2 and filed an appeal of the action three days later, Patricia McConahay, spokeswoman for the state personnel board, confirmed Friday.

A state audit concluded in December that two nursing supervisors falsely claimed or approved nearly $10,000 in overtime pay over a four-month period in 2010. The report did not include the nurses' names, but whistleblowers who initiated the two-year investigation and records obtained by The Herald indicated they were Hampton-Stewart and her supervisor, then-Director of Nursing Angelia Britt.

According to the records, confirmed by the audit, some of the overtime hours Hampton-Stewart claimed were on days she called in sick. The registered nurse has previously declined comment about the case. A young man who answered her previous telephone number Friday said it was no longer her number.

Liz Gransee, spokeswomen for the federal receiver's office which is overseeing medical care at the state's prisons, said Hampton-Stewart was terminated based on the findings of the state audit.

To date neither the state Board of Registered Nursing, the Attorney General's Office nor local prosecutors have filed any criminal or civil actions against Hampton-Stewart or her nursing license, though Deputy Attorney General Leslie Brast said in November there was an ongoing investigation.

Brast and the nursing board are seeking suspension or revocation of Britt's license for allegedly authorizing the overtime pay, as well as falsifying pharmaceutical records to cover the possible diversion of more than 1,200 narcotic medications, preventing nursing supervisors from investigating or disciplining vocational nurses suspected of the diversion and failing to report their eventual termination to the state licensing board.

She has denied the allegations in the civil action and a hearing before an administrative law judge is set for May 14.

Britt is still employed by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, though she was recently transferred to Salinas Valley State Prison as a result of layoffs. She has also declined comment on the case.

Another former employee at the prison, licensed vocational nurse Albert Cox, is also facing civil allegations that he illegally diverted morphine and other narcotics intended for inmates.

According to the state audit, Hampton-Stewart returned to the prison from a long-term medical leave in July 2012, only to go out on disability again a month later. It is unknown whether she remains on worker's compensation.

Hampton-Stewart is former head of the Hartnell College nursing department. She and the college were embroiled in a legal fight after she was fired in 2003 for allegedly receiving more than $50,000 in unearned overtime pay.

She claimed the matter was in retaliation for her complaints about sexual harassment by then-college President Ed Valeau. Both parties later dropped their legal actions.